1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electrical connector box, and more particularly to an electrical connector box including improved positioning of a relay module, fuse module, and connector module provided therein to reduce the height dimension of the electrical connector box.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Kokai Patent Publication No. 2000-92660 is an example of a prior art automotive electrical connector box structure. The electrical connector box, as illustrated in FIG. 7, includes horizontal bus bars 5A through 5D alternately located between respective insulator boards 4A through 4D in a stacked configuration, tabs 5a that bend from bus bars 5A-5D at required locations, connector receptacle 6, relay receptacle 7, and fuse receptacle 8 extending outward from upper case 2 and lower case 3.
The electrical connector box 1 described by the JP 2000-92660, however, includes connector receptacle 6, relay receptacle 7, and fuse receptacle 8 which house electrical components such as connectors, relays, and fuses, and positions the receptacles on the external sides of upper case 2 and lower case 3 so as to project upward and downward therefrom, thus creating a structure that makes it difficult to reduce the height of the electrical connector box.
Further, Japanese Kokai Patent Publication No. 2002-27634 describes electrical connector box 100 that, as shown in FIG. 8, includes multiple relays 101 fixedly mounted to baseboard 102 within a case, and tabs 104 which connect to the conductors of electronic baseboard 103 and extend horizontally into connector receptacle 105.
Electrical connector box 100, however, as described by JP 2002-27634, utilizes tabs 106 that connect to wires ‘w’ of the internal circuit by extending into connector receptacle 108 on the external side of upper case 107. Because the plug-in connector that joins to wires ‘w’ of the internal circuit must be inserted from the top of upper case 107 (lower region of FIG. 8), it becomes difficult to reduce the thickness of the electrical connector box, and thus electrical connector box 100 exhibits the same shortcoming as previously described electrical connector box 1.
In particular, in applications where the electrical connector box is located within the instrument panel in front of the front seat, it is preferable that space be provided between the electrical connector box and instrument panel in order to provide a crush space that allows the instrument panel to bend inward in order to reduce the shock of collision should a quick stop result in the passenger striking the instrument panel. The space between the electrical connector box and instrument panel must be maintained even though the space within the instrument panel is limited. A problem exists in that no effort has been made to form the electrical connector box to thinner cross section.